Skii Trip

23rd, Jan, 15

Today fifty t.y's went to the irish ski centre in the Dublin mountains, myself included. As soon as I saw the signup sheet on the notice board I put my name down and paid, I had never been skiing before and was eager to do it since forever. I'm so glad I got the chance in T.Y to do it with my friends. We left at the start of school for the hour and a half drive there. We had to wear warm clothes and gloves. When we arrived we had to get our boots fitted, this took longer than it should have. The boots had to fit our feet snuggly but it was more like a death grip, some people lost feeling in their feet. It was very difficult to walk in the boots too because the soles are solid straight so it doesn't bend naturally with your foot from heel to toe as you walk, which made it even harder to walk down the stairs, the cool thing was you could lean very far forward without bending your knees like Michael Jackson because the boots were quite heavy. After we all had our boots fitted it was time to get our skis which had to be altered to fit our boots and our weights, this took another little while.
Eventually everyone was ready and had gloves on so we went outside to head for the slopes. The teacher brought along a first year to take photos of the trip for us which was very handy because we could hardly take them ourselves while skiing. We took a group photo and got our ski poles before heading towards the smallest slope. It was funny watching everyone trying to walk in the boots. Most of us were beginners so had to start on the smallest slope. There were about five people who had skiied before so they got to go on the larger slope, I don't think i'd of managed on it. The slopes were made out of a plastic like substance because obiously it doesn't really snow that much in Ireland. The weather was quite good today, it wasn't raining which was a bonus.
We spilt up into three groups and spread out to different sections of the small slope and lined up along the slope from the bottom to the top. We rotated around and got to ski down it. There was an instructor for each group that took us through it step by step. It didn't take long to get the hang of it, the hardest part was turning around when standing still with the long skiis on your feet. There were sprinklers on the slope which turned on and off which made our clothes soaking wet, especially if you fell over. Luckily I didn't and only half of me got wet throughout the whole thing. I learned how to turn and do a small jump and stop while skiing, I quite enjoyed it. It was also funny to watch other people falling over. We skiied for about an hour and a half and at the end we went up a small bit higher on the slope where it was a bit steeper aswel. Most people fell going down the last time. I fell over aswel, which wasn't to bad considering it was my first time skiing. Once everybody had finished we went back inside and put all of our equipment away and ate our lunch. My feet were aching from the boots and I was starving. Then it was back on the bus home.
Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves and had a good laugh at each other. Some people were dissapointed that we didn't get to go on the larger slope, but maybe next time when we're more experienced. They said they were going to plan another trip in March. I will definatly be putting my name forward for that. I enjoyed it so much. I would love to go skiing on real snow in Switzerland someday, it looks beautiful there. But for now this will do. Next time I will bring a spare pair of trousers to wear on the way home instead of sitting in dripping wet clothes.

The outdoor slopes.